It’s not No. 4 Penn State or even No. 1 Minnesota that makes the Illini nervous, it’s the other eight teams in the Big Ten. The key to a Big Ten championship is to not drop home games.

This weekend, Indiana and Purdue are the teams that are shaking up the Illini.

“It’s extremely important, Purdue and Indiana are going to be very tough and a lot of people are going to go 1-1 against them this year. We have to come out of this weekend with something in our pockets, and our backs are against the wall.”

Illinois will be concentrating on its opponents, but it will also concentrate on getting over the loss of preseason All-American setter Erin Virtue.

During introductions, fans will peer over to the Illini bench and have their hearts ache, seeing Virtue out of uniform. But she and the team have full confidence in her replacement, redshirt freshman Stephanie Obermeier.

“We have been fortunate to have Stephanie,” head coach Don Hardin said. “We have always had two high level teams going at each other in practice. We also have (assistant coach) Jenn Flynn, one of the best setters in the world for scouting. I am very comfortable that our future is with Stephanie. We have already been winning games with her in there.”

Making the setter’s job even easier is a full cavalry of dynamite outside hitters and one of the strongest defenses in the country. Virtue credited her success to the players around her and Obermeier has realized she has plenty of help.

“All the outsides are doing a fantastic job and the passers too,” Obermeier said. “It is easy when I have the ball on point and can set it to someone I know will take care of business. It makes it much easier.”

Purdue is coming in 7-3 overall and Indiana is 6-5. Despite owning a superior record, Illinois has learned that people are out to beat them; after a historic win over No. 1 USC, Illinois lost the following match to Loyola-Chicago.

“People are going to drop games against these teams whether they play well or not,” Hardin said. “It is going to be a real challenging match for us.”

Coach Hardin also believes that this weekend his team’s fans will make a difference, as they come to show appreciation for Virtue, while greeting the future in Obermeier.

“I am going to stay connected with the team,” Virtue said. “That’s our motto for the season, staying connected with ourselves and the community. I am going to be there.”

Both matches have 7p.m. starts, Purdue on Friday and Indiana on Saturday.